The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
Ken Sweeney ·
May 16, 2011 at 12:57pm
The space shuttle program put the brakes on further manned exploration of our solar system. The U.S. should have had boots on the ground on Mars thirty years after the first moon landing in 1969.
Putting a Maytag repair man in space to fix the completely useless International Space Station, or launching satellites in an inefficient manner as payload in the trunk of a reusable space vehicle, was an inefficient use of time, human capital, and financial resources.
I enjoyed Mollie Hemingway’s nostalgic reminiscing over important moments of the space shuttle program. But I have fundamental disagreement with the strategic impact and forward momentum of human space flight that the shuttle program delivered.
What does Ricochet think?
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Comments :
Aug '10
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
Exactly right. The space station was a drain on resources, as was the shuttle, actually. The original design was for a small and light shuttle, but the military got interested in it, and the thing was expanded to carry heavy military satellites.The budget soared.
I was privileged to meet astronaut Gordon Cooper before he died a few years ago, and I heard him speak several times. He and the other astronauts tried to refocus NASA on manned space missions, but couldn't do it. It was a great source of irritation for them.
Jun '10
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
The shuttle program was supposed to make spaceflight cheap, routine, and safe. It ended up costing significantly more per flight than back when we were using disposable spacecraft, and missions were often delayed and were far less frequent than projected. As for safe, the tragic record there speaks for itself.
Oct '10
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
My dad is a senior rocket scientist/manager type in the aerospace industry. He worked for the company responsible for the first shuttle explosion. He's worked at most aerospace companies in the U.S., at this point.
He completely agrees; the space shuttle is nothing more then corporate welfare. A shuttle launch costs something like 1-2 billion (the official statistics is fudged, see wikipedia, and my dad has always sited the 1-2 billion number), while every estimate of a modernized system is in the tens of millions per launch.
It's nothing more then corporate welfare. Rocket scientists like to joke the shuttle was deliberately obfuscated to lead the Russians down a blind alley in space development. The Soviets did successful copy the design--only to scrap it later.
Mar '11
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
I'm a little nostalgic for the days when America would even attempt to take on difficult technical challenges (other than Ipads, which are made in China, anyway). The Shuttle turned out to be a lot more difficult than expected and, yes, you can say in hindsight it would have been better to stay with disposable rockets. But its sure beats fishing Astronauts outa the sea!
The main problem is that America didn't move on from there - the Shuttle was kinda like a DC3, and we haven't yet developed a Boeing 707. Now the Federal Government is telling the company where it can't build factories...
Not to worry - NASA is now doing outreach to the Islamic world, which is a kinda different planet!
Edited on May 16, 2011 at 1:13pmMay '10
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
I think the shuttle program itself was a good thing. Never know when reusable space-and-back technology will come in handy. But once you've done it, OK.
My main concern is that it doesn't advance Muslim outreach a whit. Keep your eye on the ball, NASA.
Aug '10
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
News flash: In honor of the White House's new Islamic outreach, NASA is working on a flying carpet. With little tassels on the corners.
Mar '11
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
NASA is a perfect example of government buraucracy.
Started with a grand vision, it accomplishes some pretty important things, but as time passes, it becomes another aging bureucracy that does less and less. Tearing it up and replacing it with incentives for private industry would be the best of all.
Compare NASA to the public school system. Or the EPA. Or any government bureuucracy.
Aug '10
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
When looked at in context of the time, I'm not quite so down on the shuttle program. It was created when the Cold War was still in full swing, and that inevitably influenced the direction the program took. Once the shuttles were build, it just made sense to continue using them for as long as they were still useful. Now that the Cold War is over and the remaining shuttles have reached the end of their useful lifespan, it's time to retire them and hand the job over to the free market. It seems to me that the narrative has played out pretty well, all things considered.
I'm more annoyed by the Bush administration's attempt to ramp up the space program again with expensive rockets that were ill-equipped to do the job, instead of moth-balling NASA's manned spaceflight program altogether. The Cold War was over, and NASA serves zero purpose in the war on terror. It was a transparent PR exercise paid for out of taxpayers' pockets.
The whole "muslim outreach" thing aside, I think Obama's been roughly on the right track where NASA's concerned. Fingers crossed, anyways.
May '10
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
The Space Shuttle is the perfect legacy of the 70's. It is the AMC Gremlin of space vehicles, flimsy, useless, and ridiculous. At NASA, Carter-era stagflation has never ended.
Jul '10
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
When I was studying for my graduate degree, I happened to make a comment in one class that the International Space Station and the shuttle were little more than jobs programs for engineers.
Oops - it turned out that a number of my classmates were Lockheed aerospace engineers who were seeking business credentials in advance of the day that their ride on the NASA gravy train came to the end of the line.
However, they were honest guys and in a later informal conversation they made a distinction between advancing technology as a good in itself and whether that technology actually produced much of value for society. To a man, they agreed that it was great to work on expensive toys, but not much of real worth came of it.
Edited on May 16, 2011 at 3:23pmMay '10
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
Tang and velcro. Anything else. As a local (I walk my dog along NASA property in Houston), I liken the space program to the self fulfilling prophecy. Aviators from the propeller era pushed the program into the space plane/shuttle instead of relying on rockets that the astronauts rode on. As congress appropriated money to keep certain congressman happy, the program stopped achieving and became a black hole of middle America taxpayer's dollars. An entire community in SE Houston is built on NASA beget contractors beget city services beget retail services beget taxpayers beget congress beget a program that created Tang and velcro.
If the space program advanced commercial applications, NASA would remind us of it constantly. Privatize the space program.
Jun '10
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
Kenneth: When I was studying for my graduate degree, I happened to make a comment in one class that the International Space Station and the shuttle were little more than jobs programs for engineers.
Oops - it turned out that a number of my classmates were Lockheed aerospace engineers who were seeking business credentials in advance of the day that their ride on the NASA gravy train came to the end of the line.
However, they were honest guys and in a later informal conversation they made a distinction between of advancing technology as a good in itself and whether that technology actually produced much of value for society. To a man, they agreed that it was great to work on expensive toys, but not much of real worth came of it. · May 16 at 2:47pm
Kenneth, your abrasiveness is one of your most endearing qualities. Love you, dude.
Oct '10
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
With a single memo from an obscure CIA analyst coming to the attention of President Nixon, it could have been so different:
Children of Apollo
If we'd exploited what we had the capability to do in 1967, people would be grousing about the speed of light delay in posting to Ricochet from Lowell Station on Mars.
Aug '10
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
It is a myth that Tang and Velcro were products of the space program.
Tang was invented before the space program. Invented in 1957 and first marketed in powdered form in 1959, it was merely popularized by the fact that John Glenn took it on his Mercury flight, in 1962.
Velcro was invented in 1948 by a Swiss electrical engineer. He patented it in 1955. Again, it was popularized by the US space program, but NASA merely bought the stuff.
Virtually every "commercial advancement" that has actually come out of NASA has merely been an "improvement" of a product they purchased off the shelf and adapted to spaceflight. Stuff like improved exercise equipment, improvements to radio technology, navigation software, better pacemakers, etc. You have to search really hard to find something genuinely useful that NASA genuinely invented.
Here's a link, if'n y'all are curious: Ten NASA "inventions".
Edited on May 16, 2011 at 3:08pmSep '10
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
Ken Sweeney
The space shuttle program put the brakes on further manned exploration of our solar system. The U.S. should have had boots on the ground on Mars thirty years after the first moon landing in 1969.
The shuttle and the long-delayed space station were originally intended as infrastructure for a much larger program of manned exploration of the Solar System. The notion was that the space station would be a base where large spacecraft could be constructed in orbit and then sent to the other planets. This would allow us to use nuclear propulsion outside the atmosphere.
The shuttle itself didn't hold us back, although it was far more expensive than advertised. The engineers at NASA hoped that putting the infrastructure in place would make it easier for us to commit to manned exploration of the Solar System. What holds us back is a lack of will. If we really wanted our people to explore Mars, we could.
Mar '11
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
Other than computer chips.
May '10
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
Misthiocracy
It is a myth that Tang and Velcro were products of the space program.
...
Virtually every "commercial advancement" that has actually come out of NASA has merely been an "improvement" of a product they purchased off the shelf and adapted to spaceflight.
It's ridiculous to judge the space program, positively or negatively, on its spin-off commercial products. By doing this you are inherently writing it off as a failure. Judge it on the merits of its primary mission and its record of success.
Jul '10
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
David Williamson
Other than computer chips. · May 16 at 3:16pm
Huh? Jack Kilby of of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor were the fathers of the computer chip - in 1958 and 1959. NASA wasn't even born.
Edited on May 16, 2011 at 3:35pmAug '10
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
Using that criteria, NASA is ridiculous. NASA has published a list of every commercialized technology and product linked to its research annually since 1976. They wouldn't do that if they didn't think it justified their work.
Jul '10
Re: The Space Shuttle Program was a Failure (and We Were Promised Jet Packs!)
By the way, the Velcro story is endearing. Far from some advanced techie invention, the Swiss guy was hiking in the Alps and he got these thistle thingies sticking all over his socks. So he looked at his woolen socks and the thistles under a microscope and - Eureka!